The Illusion of the YouTube Celebrity

I’ve been watching quite a few videos lately of popular YouTubers like Sam Pepper and Alex Day due to the recent serious allegations against Sam Pepper. I’m sure if you’re on YouTube, you’ve heard about several cases involving the YouTube community. There has been a lot of drama online. Some of the stuff that has been going on has been less serious than others but still has shaken the community as a whole. I first found out about Sam Pepper when watching prank videos from a channel called YesFunnyYes where a guy goes around the city kissing girls. I started searching online to see if these videos were planned or were the women in the videos actually consenting to kissing a total stranger. In that search I came across news about Sam Pepper, a popular UK YouTuber who has been accused of sexual harassment and rape. This problem with YouTubers using their popularity to their advantage apparently started with a singer named Ed Blann who was also accused of a similar crime.

I think some people who go on YouTube have painted this perfect picture of who they think their favorite YouTuber is in real life, when in reality, they are just like you and me. No one is perfect even though some of them would like their viewers to think otherwise. The internet is a scary place and might even be scarier that real life because online, an individual can pretty much be anything and anyone.

With all of that being said, the YouTube community should be more careful and more aware because people might not be what they seem. The term “YouTube Celebrity” has been thrown around so much that some of us have failed to realize that they are just like you and me. Sure they have spent countless hours filming and editing their video and garnering a massive audience….but at the end of the day, they are just like you and me (some with more faults that others). It’s just sad that things like the Sam Pepper incidents have to occur for us to realize this.

Well, these are just my thoughts on the matter. Leave yours in the comments.